Alternative Storytellers pedestal

(Above:  Four views of the pedestal for the collaborative sculpture to be displayed next March for Alternative Storytellers, a group show.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

I am officially finished with the work for the upcoming March exhibit at Anastasia & Friends Gallery here in Columbia.  The show is called Alternative Storytellers and will feature work by three artists, Flavia Isabella Lovatelli, Olga Yukhno, and me!  Each one of us works in a different medium but we are all presenting work that illustrates stories.  Flavia's work focuses on recycling and environmental issues through her coiled papers and repurposed materials. Olga works in ceramics and taking stories about social injustices heard on NPR and other news agencies and making them visual.  I've been infusing feminist endings into popular fairy tales.  Together, we are making a collaborative centerpiece.  Olga is making a four-way facing head. Flavia is creating a recycled garment. I have already made a book cover installation and have now finished the pedestal on which our "storyteller" will stand.  (CLICK HERE for the book cover installation.)

(Above:  The Alternative Storyteller pedestal on the floor at Mouse House, my business.  Please note the hanging book covers in the background.)

I already had a nice, heavy pedestal.  Over the past few months, I've collected several 1950s high school year books to cover it.  Several years ago, I purchased a set of late 19th c., leather bound Swedish books at an otherwise high-end antiquarian book auction for a "mercy bid" of $25.  I used twenty of them to create a series called Obsolete.  (Click HERE to see several of them!)  I used another dozen or so to create a unique table for yet another installation.  (Click HERE to see Under the Canopy.)  I used another four for the top of the pedestal.  Believe it or not, I still have a few left!

(Above:  Taking photos of the pedestal.)

Taking photos of this pedestal was only possible with two pieces of 40" x 60" foam-centered boards.  I am most assuredly running out of space at Mouse House, my frame shop!  Art storage is a real issue!

(Above:  Detail of the pedestal.)

On each corner, I collaged the words "The Stories We Could Tell".  After all, stories from bygone years, high school, the 1950s, and handed down family tales have everything to do with storytelling.  For the very top of the pedestal, I attached a red lacquered table top.  It had once been part of a 3D found object sculpture called 78 RPM.  Unfortunately, that piece got damaged.  Fortunately, part of it got another alternative use as art!